The invention relates generally to agricultural machinery and, more particularly, to a comminuting device in an agricultural harvesting machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,508 describes a comminuting device used in agricultural harvesting machines. This comminuting device includes a chopper rotor with a shaft. The chopper rotor is equipped with material conveying and comminuting beaters. The material conveying beaters are pivotably attached to holding flanges fixed to the rotor shaft by means of a screw joint. The material conveying beaters themselves are constructed in two parts. These two beater portions, which together form a common material conveying beater, are spaced apart by means of a bushing arranged at one end. This design creates a through-channel extending along the whole length between the two beater portions. This through-channel is designed to allow a cutter blade that is fixed to the surrounding housing of the chopper rotor to pass between the beater portions while the chopper rotor rotates. When the chopper rotor rotates the material conveying beaters adopt a position oriented radially to the shaft of the chopper rotor due to centrifugal force.
It is desirable to break up the chaff and straw from the harvested crop into very small pieces in order to facilitate decay. This requires designing the comminuting device with as many cutting edges as possible. However, the comminuting device must also be able to dispose of whatever volume of crop stream is fed into it. U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,405 discloses a comminuting device having material conveying beaters with paddle-like extensions integrally formed into the area of the beaters facing away from the rotor. Unfortunately, this design resulted in a considerable reduction in the number of cutting elements that could be fit into the device since the cutting elements could only be positioned in the gaps between adjacent beaters.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,508 attempted to address this deficiency with material conveying beaters constructed in two parts that were spaced apart so that cutting elements could also pass between the two beater parts. However, this split beater design drastically reduces the beater""s conveying and material removing capacity. In addition, the split beaters are vulnerable to blockage by long-stalked crops. This design also requires more power to drive the chopper rotor and impedes movement of the crop through the comminuting device to higher energy requirements for driving the chopper rotor, above all this led to the movement of the crop through the comminuting device being impeded.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.
An aspect of the present invention is to provide a comminuting device with improved chopping ability and increased material conveying and throughput capability.
In accordance with the above aspect of the invention, there is provided a comminuting device including a chopper rotor having a rotor shaft and a conveying element pivotably connected with the rotor shaft of the chopper rotor, wherein the conveying element is formed by a first arm and a second arm with the first and second arms being connected with each other by a cross web.
In another embodiment, a comminuting device includes a chopper rotor having a rotor shaft; a first conveying element pivotably connected with the rotor shaft and carried with the rotor shaft as it rotates, said conveying element being formed by first and second arms that are connected with each other by a cross web and having a recess between the first and second arms; and a first cutting element connected with a frame associated with the agricultural machine which cooperates with the conveying element as the conveying element rotates with the rotor shaft.
These aspects are merely illustrative aspects of innumerable aspects associated with present invention and should not be deemed as limiting in any manner. These and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent form the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with referenced drawings.